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Ferdinand Lassalle

The Deliverers of the Constitution

(1862)


Written: As a speech in German, delivered April 6th, 1862.
Published in English: 1927.
Translated by: Jakob Altmeier (presumed).
Source: Voices of Revolt: Speeches of Ferdinand Lassalle. International Publishers, first edition, 1927, New York, USA. 94 pages.
Transcription and Markup: Bill Wright for marxists.org, February, 2023


You know, gentlemen, there exists in our city a party whose organ is the Volkszeitung,[a] a party — I say — which, in spite of its name, rallies to this rag of an ensign, to this ragged constitution of ours, a party which, therefore, terms itself the “Faithful to the Constitution,” and whose battle cry is: “Let us adhere to the Constitution, for God’s sake, the Constitution, the Constitution — help, to the rescue! Fire, fire!” Gentlemen, whenever you behold a party arising, regardless of when and where, which makes its battle cry the terrified shout, “To rally round the Constitution,” what must be your inference in such cases? I am asking you, gentlemen, not as men of action and will; my question is not directed to your volition. I am asking you solely as thinking men: what must be your inference from such a situation?

Well, gentlemen, without setting yourselves up to be prophets, you will always be able to say with the utmost certainty in such cases: this constitution is at the last gasp; it is as good as dead; a few years more and it will no longer be in existence.

The reasons are very simple. When a written constitution actually corresponds to the real alignment of forces in the country, this cry will never be uttered. Such a constitution has the respectful adherence of every one; no one would dare encroach upon it. No one would even think of coming to grips with such a constitution, for in such an encounter he would be surely worsted. Where the written constitution is in accord with the actual alignment of forces in the country, it will be impossible for any party to make a special battle cry of the beauty of adhering to the constitution. When this cry is uttered, it is a sure and unmistakable sign that it is a shout of terror; in other words, that there is still some condition in the written constitution which contradicts the actual constitution, the actual situation of forces in the country. Once this contradiction is present, the written constitution is lost forever, and no God and no amount of shouting can be of any use.

Such a constitution may suffer change in either direction, either to the Right or to the Left, but it cannot be a permanent constitution. The very cry that it must be retained is evidence of this to any man of clear thought. It may be altered to the Right by an effort on the part of the Government to secure such alteration in order to bring the written constitution into agreement with the actual resources and strength of the organized power of society. Or, the unorganized power of society may make itself felt and prove once more that it is greater than the organized powers. In this case, the constitution will be altered as far in the direction of the Left as it would be altered, in the previous case, in the direction of the Right. But in any case, it is a lost constitution.

Gentlemen, if you will not only carefully bear in mind and think out the terms of the lecture which I have had the honor of delivering to you, but will apply it and develop it to its utmost consequences, you will have put yourselves in possession of the entire art and science of the constitution question. Constitutional questions are not fundamentally questions of right, but questions of might; the true constitution of a country exists only in the real, actual situation of forces prevailing in a country; written constitutions are real constitutions and of permanent life only when they are the precise expression of the true situation of forces prevailing in society — these are the principles which you must bear in mind. I have developed these principles in your presence to-day only in so far as they apply to the armed forces; in the first place, because the brevity of the time at my disposal has permitted only a limited application of these principles; in the second place, because the army is the most decisive and the most important of all the organized instruments of force. But you will understand by yourselves that the matter applies equally well to the organization of the officials of justice, of administrative officials, etc.; these are likewise organized instruments of power in certain societies. If you will bear this lecture in mind, gentlemen, you will know — if ever again you should be in a position to write a constitution for yourselves — what the necessary procedure must be, and will not content yourselves with filling sheets of paper with writing, but only with the real action of making genuine alterations in the actual situation of forces in the country.

—From Ueber Verfassungswesen.

 


Explanatory Note

[a] Volkszeitung: A political daily of democratic tendency which began appearing in Berlin, in April, 1853.


Last updated on 14 February 2023